Top 10 Life-Changing Books...

Last weekend I spent a fair amount of time typing up a beautiful blog post explaining why I choose the books I choose on my Facebook post RE: my top 10 life-changing books and then in the blink of eye - actually it was the bump of a key - the blog post disappeared.  Yes, disappeared as in bye-bye.  The blog app said, "Post empty."  It wasn't empty 0.3 seconds ago.  {Sigh.}


This past week was ridiculously scheduled with something every single night so I had to wait to sit down and rewrite it. 


Take 2...


A week or so ago, my best friend Sara challenged me to list my Top 10 List of Life-Changing Books.  In Sara's post, she stated that the Bible was a given...as it is the MOST LIFE-CHANGING BOOK!!!  I concur.  Plus if I say this in the intro, I really get 11 books to list - which is totally win-win.  :)


Here's my Top 10 List...in no particular order...


Charlotte's Web by E.B. White  ~ I choose Charlotte's Web because it was fine piece of children's literature that I learned about true friendship.  Be loyal to your friends.  Love them - and not for what they can do for you.  My favorite all-time quote is found in this fabulous literary piece of fiction.  "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer."


The Church Ladies by Lisa Samson ~ This book is written about a pastor's wife who struggles with her past.  This book is start to finish acts of grace lived out in the lives of the characters.  I loved reading this book!!! 


Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers ~ Based on the book of Hosea from the Bible...  This book is extraordinary and amazing!!!  Read it!!!  READ IT NOW!!!


Grace for the Good Girl by Emily Freeman ~ So often preaching is laws - laws - LAWS...and there is a time and place for the law.  However...what about grace???  I picked up this book at a used bookstore near Chattanooga, Tennessee while visiting my parents.  Emily Freeman's witty writing style showers down grace - grace - GRACE...and reveals the heart of a writer who really gets this GRACE-THING.  I have underlined and marked up and highlighted passages.  I've included them on my blog and on Facebook. 


Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ~ If you have been following my blog for any period of time, you know my love of Jane Austen.  If you are new to my blog - Hello.  My name is Angie.  I love Jane Austen.  Now you know.  I love Austen's classic writing style.  Her witty and eccentric characters...Mr. Darcy and his socially awkward moments.  Elizabeth Bennett's charming and delightful sense of humor.  The younger Bennett girls who drive me completely crazy with their frivolity at the expense of Jane and Elizabeth.  I'm in agony - much like Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail - if Mr. Darcy will really woo Elizabeth of if their paths will cross and then part ways without an exchange of affection. 


Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst ~ I could've honestly listed all of Lysa's books...however the limit was 10 so I opted for Unglued.  Before reading this book, I thought for sure - I don't come unglued.  Hahahahahahahaha.  I was so young and naïve 2 years ago!  Through this study, I realized that I do come unglued...and there are different levels and ways to come unglued. 


The Single Woman by Mandy Hale ~ This book was initially a I-found-it-on-the-shelf-at-Barnes-and-Noble while waiting for my new eyeglasses to get made at the one-hour eyeglass place.  I had no intentions of reading it and falling completely smitten with Emily Hale's take on singleness and life and love.  As I turned each page, I found myself nodding {oh dear, I hope not outwardly...} along with Mandy's life observations.  Her encouragement to NOT settle has been uplifting and refreshing.


The Redemption Series by Karen Kingsbury ~ Funny, yet true, story about this series.  While I was teaching second grade, I also subbed in the evenings and on weekends at the public library.  One day a patron returned Reunion (the fifth and final book of this series), I remember reading the back of the book and thinking that I could enjoy this book about family and love and redemption...  Never once did the thought, Angie Good, this might be in a series cross my pretty little mind.  I read through it - cried and cried and cried.  {I won't tell you why because that would be rude...plus it's the fifth of five books.}  After finishing the book, I realized there were four other books in the series...  I checked out the other four and finished them in short-order.  Karen Kingsbury's writing style...the realness of the characters...charms and woos me.  After reading this series, I read One Tuesday Morning based on the events of 9/11.  I read this on a flight from Tampa, Florida to Chicago, Illinois.  I don't remember a single thing about the flight...other than reading about the quivering Trade Tower buildings...the people stuck...and I remember sobbing so much that the flight attendant brought me my very own box of Kleenex. 


The Velveteen Rabbit by Margarey Williams ~ In You've Got Mail (yes, I am talking THAT movie for a second time), Kathleen Kelly talks about how reading a book as a child becomes so much a part of you...  I think for me, The Velveteen Rabbit is one of those books.  I know, I know...it's on my life-changing list...but this really is one of those books that changed the way I look at life...at being very real.  This probably explains why back in 2000 - while standing infront of my Children's Literature class in Pensacola, Florida - I read this book and cried when the toy rabbit turned in to a real bunny because the boy loved him soo much.  Realness.  You become vulnerable when you are real.  It can be scary taking the first step to being real and transparent...but I promise you this, once you do it - you realize that it's also very freeing. 


Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend ~ When to say "yes" and when to say "no"...Excellent read!!!